Renato Poggioli (1907-1963)
An International Symposium
Co-hosted by
UMass Amherst, Brown University and Harvard University
October 25-26-27, 2007
The year 2007 marks the centennial of the birth of Renato Poggioli, a world-renowned
scholar in Slavic Studies, Comparative Literature and Italian Studies. Born in Florence,
Italy, and trained as a slavicist at his hometown university, Poggioli left fascist Italy
in
1938 to teach Italian at Smith College in Northampton, MA. A militant anti-fascist,
Poggioli co-founded, while in Northampton, the Mazzini Society (perhaps the most active
anti-fascist organization outside of Italy) with, among others, Michele Cantarella and
Gaetano Salvemini. He eventually became a Professor of Italian at Brown University and
then a Professor of Slavic and Comparative Literature at Harvard University.
As a prolific translator and as an influential literary critic and theorist, Poggioli
became a
very well known figure in US literary circles and contributed largely to the diffusion of
American and Slavic literatures in Italy, as well as to the diffusion of Italian and
Slavic
literatures in the US.
The symposium is open to the public and no registration is required. For more information
and for the complete program, please visit
http://www.umass.edu/italian/poggioli_symposium/
and
http://www.umass.edu/italian/poggioli_symposium/poster.pdf
Sincerely,
Roberto Ludovico